LOS ANGELES — If the movie is about music, age, the politics of performance and the peculiar magic of a piece composed for an ensemble of four, it might be “A Late Quartet,” which is to open in New York and other cities on Friday.

Or it could be “Quartet,” which will begin playing in commercial theaters on Dec. 28.

In a rare confluence, these two new films are about to work their way through remarkably similar themes, as they tell very different stories about the entanglement of musical professionals in a cherished composition. Both are a reminder that music and film at least occasionally meet for more than a few needle drops, a soundtrack album or a Dolby-pumped score.

In “A Late Quartet,” directed by Yaron Zilberman, who was also one of its writers, the plot turns around a famous chamber group, now strained by years and personal passions, and its planned performance of Beethoven’s Quartet in C sharp minor (Op. 131).

“Quartet,” directed by Dustin Hoffman and based on a play and script by Ronald Harwood, tells of the unintended reunion of four aging singers who may or may not revisit their great moment, a performance of “Bella figlia dell’amore,” the vocal quartet from Act III of Verdi’s “Rigoletto.”

Classical music may be a niche interest for moviegoers, but a handful of well-remembered, critically praised films have been built around the subject. For instance, “Shine,” in 1996, told the story of the pianist David Helfgott’s struggle with both mental illness and Rachmaninoff’s intricate Piano Concerto No. 3. The 1984 film version of “Amadeus,” based on a play by Peter Shaffer, wound its plot around the composition of Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor.

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From left, Billy Connolly, Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Pauline Collins in “Quartet.”Credit
The Weinstein Company

And “Black Swan,” directed by Darren Aronofsky and released in 2010, tells the fictional tale of a ballerina’s confrontation with Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”

Speaking from his home in London last week, Mr. Harwood said “Quartet” was similarly born from its own music.

After watching a documentary, perhaps 20 years ago, about a retirement home for performers in a building that had belonged to Verdi, Mr. Harwood recalled, he wrote a note to himself. “There’s a play here. End with the quartet from ‘Rigoletto,’ ” it said.

“Rigoletto,” like “Quartet,” involves love, betrayal and consequences. But the opera’s libretto, Mr. Harwood explained, was “not important” to his reasons for structuring a comic drama around one of its central musical moments.

Instead, the inspiration was nonverbal. “I happen to think it is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written for the human voice,” he said.

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Clip: 'A Late Quartet'

For that initial impulse to become a stage play — with its plot, subplots and the passions of four principal characters who have aged past almost everything except their love for the music and their history with one another — took nearly eight years.

And almost eight years after that, Mr. Harwood began writing the screenplay for “Quartet,” after the actor Tom Courtenay insisted that he develop the story for film. Mr. Courtenay plays the tenor Reggie — opposite Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins and Maggie Smith — in the quartet, which has the celebrity status of a group like the Guarneri String Quartet.

Eventually, Mr. Harwood said, Mr. Hoffman adopted “Quartet” as a directing project. It then moved quickly to the screen, with backing from both the BBC and the Weinstein Company, which is releasing the film just weeks after Mr. Zilberman’s movie, also years in the making, arrives with a musical story of its own. (“A Late Quartet” is distributed by Entertainment One.)

“I’ve written a film about my neighborhood,” said Mr. Zilberman, who spoke by telephone from his studio near Central Park and the adjoining musical zone on Manhattan’s West Side. He was referring to the large number of working musicians who live in the area and resemble the characters in his film.

Mr. Zilberman, who worked on the script for “A Late Quartet” with a friend, Seth Grossman, said he conceived of the project perhaps seven years ago, after finishing a documentary, called “Watermarks,” about a Jewish women’s swim team in the 1930s and their reunion.

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Clip: 'Quartet'

His idea was to write about family, in both a literal and a metaphorical sense, within a fictional chamber group. But his story, he quickly realized, could only be told around Beethoven’s 14th string quartet.

“The music influenced the storytelling; it was part of the initial concept,” Mr. Zilberman said.

Opus 131, one of five late Beethoven quartets, is a long piece, played in seven movements without a break. In his film, he said, it brings a turning point for the oldest member of his group, a cellist portrayed by Christopher Walken.

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The other musicians, portrayed by Catherine Keener, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mark Ivanir, have issues of their own. But the intricacies of Beethoven’s work, one of his last, come to stand for what joins them, what separates them and what they have achieved in a professional lifetime together.

The composition, Mr. Zilberman said, has long been recognized in musical circles for its air of finality. Schubert, he recalled, once said, “After this, what is left for us to write?”

Though passionate about music, Mr. Zilberman said he did not play. “I used to play cello and other instruments,” he said.

“André Previn once said to me, ‘You’re the worst pianist I’ve ever heard,’ ” he noted.

“I said, ‘At least you rate me.’ ”

A version of this article appears in print on November 1, 2012, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Two Films in Which Classical Music Is Much More Than a Score. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe